Oak Boat Bed #1: The Toy Box Bow

Oak may not be a popular boat building material in the real world, but in my world it make a beautiful bed. I’ve been working on a boat bed for the last couple days now. Most of them that I build are painted and I build them out of a combination of Maple MDF and pine. This customer, however, wants their in oak. I have built one before and that example (see oak example) is what the customer sew and wanted. I’m even going to do the same color scheme.

I framed out the bow of the boat. This will be a toy box. In the back bulkhead (like my boat terminology?), I cut in air vents, for that situation where big brother might stuff the little brother in there. Not writing from experience even though I wanted to as we were growing up.

I use a template to cut the top and bottom shapes. This is a template that I developed on the first on. I now have one for twin, full, and queen.

The ribs are placed in for support and then a bending plywood skin is placed over it. I cut the plywood a little big and then trim off with a laminate bit on the router and hand planes.

3 comments so far

Very nice looking work and the whole Boat Bed concept is a very cool theme ! A few questions, 1) with that size of toy box lid and some considerable weight, what do You use for lid supports(if any) 2) I haven’t used bendable plywood, is it pretty easy to work with and what is the cost compared to standard ply ? Once again, Your work and finished product is impressive,thanks for sharing !........ROB

1. Full size so it is about 56” wide. Two spring loaded lid supports from Custom Service Hardware.2. Yes it is easy to work with. Very porous so you have to fill the grain before painting. When painting I sand and use a drywall mud. I am sanding this one and applying an oak veneer. Not expensive. I think it is in the $30 range.